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UC Santa Barbara Previously Published Works

Cover page of On becoming citizens of the ‘non-existent’: document production and Syrian-Circassian wartime migration to Abkhazia

On becoming citizens of the ‘non-existent’: document production and Syrian-Circassian wartime migration to Abkhazia

(2024)

This paper explores the centrality of passports and identification documents (or their lack thereof) in peoples’ everyday lives and life chances, particularly in the contexts of forced displacement and protracted conflict. While the production of largely internationally unrecognized passports reasserts the logics of the globally dominant modern nation-state order, it also lays bare the problematic, fragile, and performative qualities of that system. I argue that the bureaucratic processes of document production for wartime migrants reveal the racializing effects of codified legal and ethnic classifications. As such, the production of passports and legal identification documents plays a formative role in the ethno-racial exclusions embedded in statecraft projects. This paper invites readers to consider how passports and identification documents affect multiple aspects of life, including access to work opportunities, mobility, and housing—and how people creatively traverse the confinments of these documents and their bureaucratic categories.

Cover page of Differences in the link between social trait judgment and socio-emotional experience in neurotypical and autistic individuals.

Differences in the link between social trait judgment and socio-emotional experience in neurotypical and autistic individuals.

(2024)

Neurotypical (NT) individuals and individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) make different judgments of social traits from others faces; they also exhibit different social emotional responses in social interactions. A common hypothesis is that the differences in face perception in ASD compared with NT is related to distinct social behaviors. To test this hypothesis, we combined a face trait judgment task with a novel interpersonal transgression task that induces measures social emotions and behaviors. ASD and neurotypical participants viewed a large set of naturalistic facial stimuli while judging them on a comprehensive set of social traits (e.g., warm, charismatic, critical). They also completed an interpersonal transgression task where their responsibility in causing an unpleasant outcome to a social partner was manipulated. The purpose of the latter task was to measure participants emotional (e.g., guilt) and behavioral (e.g., compensation) responses to interpersonal transgression. We found that, compared with neurotypical participants, ASD participants self-reported guilt and compensation tendency was less sensitive to our responsibility manipulation. Importantly, ASD participants and neurotypical participants showed distinct associations between self-reported guilt and judgments of criticalness from others faces. These findings reveal a novel link between perception of social traits and social emotional responses in ASD.

Cover page of Gratitude Is Morally Sensitive.

Gratitude Is Morally Sensitive.

(2024)

Helping acts, however well intended and beneficial, sometimes involve immoral means or immoral helpers. Here, we explore whether help recipients consider moral evaluations in their appraisals of gratitude, a possibility that has been neglected by existing accounts of gratitude. Participants felt less grateful and more uneasy when offered immoral help (Study 1, N = 150), and when offered morally neutral help by an immoral helper (Study 2, N = 172). In response to immoral help or helpers, participants were less likely to accept the help and less willing to strengthen their relationship with the helper even when they accepted it. Study 3 (N = 276) showed that recipients who felt grateful when offered immoral help were perceived as less likable, less moral, and less suitable as close relationship partners than those who felt uneasy by observers. Our results demonstrate that gratitude is morally sensitive and suggest this might be socially adaptive.

Cover page of Targeted hypermutation of putative antigen sensors in multicellular bacteria.

Targeted hypermutation of putative antigen sensors in multicellular bacteria.

(2024)

Diversity-generating retroelements (DGRs) are used by bacteria, archaea, and viruses as a targeted mutagenesis tool. Through error-prone reverse transcription, DGRs introduce random mutations at specific genomic loci, enabling rapid evolution of these targeted genes. However, the function and benefits of DGR-diversified proteins in cellular hosts remain elusive. We find that 82% of DGRs from one of the major monophyletic lineages of DGR reverse transcriptases are encoded by multicellular bacteria, which often have two or more DGR loci in their genomes. Using the multicellular purple sulfur bacterium Thiohalocapsa sp. PB-PSB1 as an example, we characterized nine distinct DGR loci capable of generating 10282 different combinations of target proteins. With environmental metagenomes from individual Thiohalocapsa aggregates, we show that most of PB-PSB1s DGR target genes are diversified across its biogeographic range, with spatial heterogeneity in the diversity of each locus. In Thiohalocapsa PB-PSB1 and other bacteria hosting this lineage of cellular DGRs, the diversified target genes are associated with NACHT-domain anti-phage defenses and putative ternary conflict systems previously shown to be enriched in multicellular bacteria. We propose that these DGR-diversified targets act as antigen sensors that confer a form of adaptive immunity to their multicellular consortia, though this remains to be experimentally tested. These findings could have implications for understanding the evolution of multicellularity, as the NACHT-domain anti-phage systems and ternary systems share both domain homology and conceptual similarities with the innate immune and programmed cell death pathways of plants and metazoans.

Cover page of Variation in maternal lactation practices associated with changes in diurnal maternal inflammation.

Variation in maternal lactation practices associated with changes in diurnal maternal inflammation.

(2024)

While the importance of human milk in shaping infant immune function is well established, the impact of at-the-nipple (ATN) breastfeeding on maternal immune status has been understudied. Since lactation evolved to support infant survival and boost maternal fitness, we predict that ATN breastfeeding will confer benefits on maternal immune function. We measure the absolute and relative frequency of different infant feeding methods (ATN breastfeeding, pumping, donated milk, other supplementation) used by postpartum women in Seattle, WA (USA). We implement Bayesian modeling to estimate the effects of ATN breastfeeding on diurnal change in secretion rate of pro-inflammatory salivary cytokines and C-reactive protein (CRP). Our results show that most mothers in our sample used a variety of infant feeding methods, with pumping as the most common alternative to ATN breastfeeding. We find that ATN breastfeeding is associated with non-linear effects on diurnal IL-8 and CRP. Furthermore, we find that women who report zero versus ubiquitous ATN breastfeeding exhibit opposing diurnal patterns in CRP secretion rate. This study provides evidence that variation in maternal lactation practices corresponds to differences in maternal immune responses, highlighting how measuring lactation as a continuous variable can further enhance understanding of postpartum maternal physiology.

Cover page of Effect of trade on global aquatic food consumption patterns.

Effect of trade on global aquatic food consumption patterns.

(2024)

Globalization of fishery products is playing a significant role in shaping the harvesting and use of aquatic foods, but a vigorous debate has focused on whether the trade is a driver of the inequitable distribution of aquatic foods. Here, we develop species-level mass balance and trophic level identification datasets for 174 countries and territories to analyze global aquatic food consumption patterns, trade characteristics, and impacts from 1976 to 2019. We find that per capita consumption of aquatic foods has increased significantly at the global scale, but the human aquatic food trophic level (HATL), i.e., the average trophic level of aquatic food items in the human diet, is declining (from 3.42 to 3.18) because of the considerable increase in low-trophic level aquaculture species output relative to that of capture fisheries since 1976. Moreover, our study finds that trade has contributed to increasing the availability and trophic level of aquatic foods in >60% of the worlds countries. Trade has also reduced geographic differences in the HATL among countries over recent decades. We suggest that there are important opportunities to widen the current focus on productivity gains and economic outputs to a more equitable global distribution of aquatic foods.

Cover page of The bii4africa dataset of faunal and floral population intactness estimates across Africas major land uses.

The bii4africa dataset of faunal and floral population intactness estimates across Africas major land uses.

(2024)

Sub-Saharan Africa is under-represented in global biodiversity datasets, particularly regarding the impact of land use on species population abundances. Drawing on recent advances in expert elicitation to ensure data consistency, 200 experts were convened using a modified-Delphi process to estimate intactness scores: the remaining proportion of an intact reference population of a species group in a particular land use, on a scale from 0 (no remaining individuals) to 1 (same abundance as the reference) and, in rare cases, to 2 (populations that thrive in human-modified landscapes). The resulting bii4africa dataset contains intactness scores representing terrestrial vertebrates (tetrapods: ±5,400 amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals) and vascular plants (±45,000 forbs, graminoids, trees, shrubs) in sub-Saharan Africa across the regions major land uses (urban, cropland, rangeland, plantation, protected, etc.) and intensities (e.g., large-scale vs smallholder cropland). This dataset was co-produced as part of the Biodiversity Intactness Index for Africa Project. Additional uses include assessing ecosystem condition; rectifying geographic/taxonomic biases in global biodiversity indicators and maps; and informing the Red List of Ecosystems.

The Emotion Filmmaker: Temporal Memory, Time–Emotion Integration, and Affective Style

(2024)

Emotional experiences are temporally dynamic, but prior work suggests that temporal features are usually neglected in remembered emotion. For instance, retrospective emotion evaluations are often biased by discrete salient timepoints, such as the peak and end moments, at the expense of objective event duration (i.e., peak-end effects and duration neglect). However, how these retrospective emotion biases originate, as well as their significance for emotional functioning, remain unclear. Here, we test the hypothesis that retrospective emotion biases are related to fundamental limits of temporal processing and memory capacity. Further, we examine whether these limits have implications for emotional functioning. Participants (n = 60) underwent a novel paradigm comprising affectively-rich movie sequences while providing emotion ratings continuously (moment-by-moment) and retrospectively. Temporal memory for previously watched emotional movie sequences and dispositional negativity were measured. Our findings revealed a greater "end" bias as the duration of emotional-movie sequences increased, suggesting that limitations in temporal processing capacity may contribute to retrospective emotion biases. Critically, temporal-memory errors were associated with larger retrospective emotion biases and with individual differences in dispositional negativity. Collectively, these results indicate that retrospective emotion biases may stem partly from mnemonic temporal errors that are emotionally maladaptive. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

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Cover page of Avoiding ecosystem and social impacts of hydropower, wind, and solar in Southern Africas low-carbon electricity system.

Avoiding ecosystem and social impacts of hydropower, wind, and solar in Southern Africas low-carbon electricity system.

(2024)

The scale at which low-carbon electricity will need to be deployed to meet economic growth, electrification, and climate goals in Africa is unprecedented, yet the potential land use and freshwater impacts from this massive build-out of energy infrastructure is poorly understood. In this study, we characterize low-impact onshore wind, solar photovoltaics, and hydropower potential in Southern Africa and identify the cost-optimal mix of electricity generation technologies under different sets of socio-environmental land use and freshwater constraints and carbon targets. We find substantial wind and solar potential after applying land use protections, but about 40% of planned or proposed hydropower projects face socio-environmental conflicts. Applying land and freshwater protections results in more wind, solar, and battery capacity and less hydropower capacity compared to scenarios without protections. While a carbon target favors hydropower, the amount of cost-competitively selected hydropower is at most 45% of planned or proposed hydropower capacity in any scenario-and is only 25% under socio-environmental protections. Achieving both carbon targets and socio-environmental protections results in system cost increases of 3-6%. In the absence of land and freshwater protections, environmental and social impacts from new hydropower development could be significant.